did the club blunder with treatment/sale of defoe

[diegooners]

calm down GL my love... Defoe is quality but if you have only just realised that then it is you who has blundered. I think we all knew he was good but he doesn't seem to form good partnerships with other forwards, unlike Keano, and therefore he had to go. I would go so far as to say that Defoe is a far more natural goalscorer than Keane but as an overall team player there is no comparison. Good move for him and he deserves it.

 

[EmperorKabir]

keane has improved a lot since ramos came in, but this is purely with hindsight.

defoe was absolutely awesome but a little greedy. will always love the little bugger. we had to sell him while he was worth something because of the contract, so the club has lost a good player, but at no real expense seeing as we have keane and berba.

some might think he could create at the edge of the box, but that is really also the job for midfielders whereas strikers should poach balls into the box. man u stylee. and look at how good they are.

a lot will depend on this summer... which is something i say every summer really but there ya go

 

[Goldman]

Do we have a problem scoring goals?

:clap:

Defoe was a good player, playing week in week out he will score goals. So will Keane. Defoe's gone, i dont really care, good luck to him at pompey.

 

[KeaneIsKeane]

I don't think we're worse off for selling him then not. Bent has proven he can come off the bench and score. Defoe was unhappy and we risked letting him go for free. Berba and Keane is a great partnership and he wasn't breaking it up. I think we handled the situation perfectly.

 

[don1]

we should have not sold defoe

 

[nidge]

I really do not understand how you can come to the above conclusion? Defoe is a classy guy, who waited in the wings for 18months, and he wasn't first choice and he wanted to play first team football on a more regular basis. You cannot blame him for wanting to leave because of this.

As for Campbell, he is a **** and will always be remember as a ****.

Incorrect. Only this season has he really been sat on the bench but, then looking at Keane's scoring record from the last calander year can you blame any manager for playing him in nearly every game (both managers we have had this season have come to the same conclusion over the whole Keane/Defoe issue.)

Last season defoe had 29 starts and Keane 31 starts, now that hardly seem like having to wait in the wings. The season before Defoe had 23 starts and Keane 26. The 04/05 season Defoe had 28 starts and Keane only 23 so this myth that defoe didn't get a fair chance at Spurs and all he did was sit on the bench is complete and utter nonsense.

 

[inegve]

I was very happy when we sold him.Happy for myself, and happy even for him.Didn't rate him before, don't rate him now.He just doesn't fit into our style of play, and all those pompey goals are due to the huge differents to the way they play.

 

[SpurSince57]

He had a run of 10-11 games in the middle third of last season when Keane was out, broken only by the away game to the Barcodes, when I think he was out with a slight knock. That was a gilt-edged chance to show what he could do for us; he didn't take it. As Nidge says, it really is a complete myth that he didn't get a fair crack of the whip.

 

[Kyras]

Defoe and Keane are different types of players.

Keane and Berbatov are more than able to drop into midfield and create things, and Defoe couldn't, Defoe's an instinctive striker. Bent is similar to Defoe, but has more ability in the air and more strength.

Watching Defoe over 90 minutes is the most frustrating thing ever, sometimes he would miss 10 chances in one game, and then score one later, IIRC he did it in a cup game in extra time?

If we had had a 'number 10' in midfield then Defoe probably would have been better for us, but Jol didn't like playing Keane and Defoe, where as I thought it had potential had a partnership. We like playing a big man up top and this means only one of Defoe and Keane plays, and Keane's a better all round footballer, who is at least as good as him at finishing.

 

[DC_Boy]

defoe wouldn't sign a contract - he decided he was willing to go to Pompey, so we sold him, as Levy had hinted time and again would happen - provided JD wanted to go to another club and not just sit out his contract, which at times looked likely to happen

we got about £9m for him - about the same price as hutton and more than for woodgate, both of whom are far more important to us than Defoe was

yes we could have afforded all three, but we are a trading club and we will sell as well as buy if the price is right - we don't always get it right but in JD's case we did - how much would he worth now with his contract running down? £5m at best?

had he stayed there would have been more tension - who knows we might have had two strikers on the bench at Wembley and not had the ability to bring on TT/Kaboul, both of whom played their part in our lge cup win

on the 'bright hypothetical side' we might have won the lge cup anyway and beat PSV with him in the squad - who knows? none of us - it was a business decision that made sense at the time and still makes sense to me

fact is, we won the league cup without JD, we got more for him than we paid for him, we got overall reasonable, though not great, service from him - his goal v Man city in the lge cup probably being the most important he ever scored for us - then in many ways typical of some of the bad luck he had at spurs he had to be subbed because of Zokora's red

Defoe's nowhere near as good as Berbatov, and Keane works better with the main man (indeed looking at the SC player of the year many think Keane is the main man, so as defoe and keane never worked well together on a consistent basis, what use JD there?)

JD is a top class prem striker, pompey got a good deal for them when they bought him

the only sadness for JD is that he probably missed out on a lge cup winners medal, and he'll never win a medal with pompey as long as he stays there, cos even if pompey win the FA cup this season, that'll be their one in fifty years win in the big time and unfortunately for JD, he's cup tied

But best wishes to JD - I think overall the move was best all round for all concerned

 

[orkneyspur]

Cheers DC, said everything and more than I was going to. :clap:

 

[DC_Boy]

thanks orkney now I'm running late for breakfast though and got to be out soon, but had to get it off me chest as they say

 

[Kendall]

I don't see why not, he was rotting as a Tottenham player.

In my opinion, Bent, Keane and Berbatov are all better than Defoe, it just so happens that Defoe is a bloody decent out and out striker, whom we couldn't accomodate to get the best out of his abilities.

The same is happening to Darren Bent, I'm sure that if Bent was the one who'd gone to Pompey he'd be racking them up like Defoe now.

It's not the players, it's our system.

 

[JamesTheYiddo]

No, Defoe isn't rubbish. I will bet you that he will score more league goals then Keane next season.

How much do you wanna bet?

:rofl:

That day will never come!

 

[Yid-ol]

Defoe will do well at pompy, IMO they have a better midfield who will be able to bring him into the game more, unlike our midfield who dont see mto do much most he time.

it was right to sell him, it didnt look like he was going to be getting many if any games really, and Defoe wouldnt sign a new contract because there was no guarente of first team football, so there was only one real option to do

 

[parklane_n17]

if berba walks out on us at end of season it will be a mistake to sell defoe if berba stays its a great bit of business.

 

[sim0n]

wow, defoe scores a couple goals for pompey and folks are second guessing his departure? short memory here.

Anyone remember the defoe that was constantly offside? the defoe who would run with his head down and blast away into row z with 2-3 available team mates wondering what the hell he was doing? I DO NOT contend that defoe was rubbish. he is a frustrating player for other players to play with. When defoe was in the starting 11 it always looked like 10 players together plus defoe running around like a chicken with his head chopped off. We all agree he can score goals, but I don't believe his style fits with the team and I don't think he does well against top teams. good luck to him - of course this thread was a foregone conclusion because he wouldn't sign a contract. We should admit that a few of his goals for pompey so far have been "forunate" - but that's always a part of the game, right :wink:

 

[lukespurs7]

I think the club made the correct decesion. The only bad thing was leaving us with only 3 strikers and if we'd got an injury then there could have been a few problems.
In terms of Defoe, we all knew he was a talented footballer and great goalscorer who just needed to be played regularly, he was too good to sit on the bench and rightly wouldn't sign a new contract as a result. Therefore we had to sell him when the time was right to make sure we didn't have to eventually let him go on a free.

He's now being played regularly and is probably portsmouths best player, it's not that suprising really but if we'd kept him say until summer it wouldn't have really changed anything, we won the carling cup without him, we probably would barely have used him in the UEFA cup and the league this season is meaningless now so again no real benefit there.

All in all a good decesion by the club and the player and i'm glad he is doing well.

 

[claw_diddy]

Defoe/Keane - always have been too similar and its was always going to end this way.

 

[Jack2]

Every club has sold players who have then been great in another club. But the fact is that sold players haven't been the right ones for the tactics for the club who sold them, or just haven't made it, wanted to leave or whatever the reason might be why they were sold. But there is always the reason and that is why I think it doesn't really matter for their previous club (in this case for us) what they are doing afterwards, if they didn't do it for us or weren't the players our manager needed.

Nevertheless I am happy to see how well Defoe is doing at Pompey. He clearly made the right decision when he moved on.